As a CEDAW signatory, Pakistan strives for gender equality, addressing discriminatory laws and advancing women’s socio-economic right The global advocacy for strategic human development has intensified for the last 30 years. The developing countries in particular are demonstrating new dynamism to meet the challenges of technological advancement in all walks of life, and also for the fulfillment of human aspirations to acquire their basic civil, political, economic, social and culture rights. This has been accompanied by emphasis on developmental needs of disadvantaged segments of world population that is women and children. The issue of women development, no doubt, is being…
Author: Akram Khatoon
Make reforms, a commitment for easy accessible education to disadvantaged segments, women and children in particular Under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agenda primary education for all by year 2015 was taken as a widely accepted humanitarian obligation and globally mandated human right. This commitment was also based on the understanding that all gender disparities would be eliminated and children everywhere, boys and girls alike, would be able to complete a full course of primary education but unfortunately, quite a number of countries were found halfway in achieving this goal. As such member countries were offered another agenda inclusive of…
Child care facilities, promoting gender equity, and women’s participation is crucial. Collaborating with organisations like EBRD, G20, and W20 can indeed help in securing funding and expertise for implementing. Among the various reasons identified on a global level for removing gender disparity with regard to education and female participation in labour force, it is the total responsibility inflicted on women and girls for care giving at the household level. This involves child care as well as special care giving for disabled and elderly members of the family. This gives them less time for education, involvement in paid work and other…
In a scenario of consistently stagnant economic performance of manufacturing and agriculture sectors of the economy for the last two decades service sector is the only immediate hope for rejuvenating the economy of Pakistan. It is a astonishing fact that despite hiccups faced by entire economy, it is the service sector particularly information technology, communication and financial sector, which has attracted largest foreign direct investment until 2018. In the wake of antagonistic attitude of majority of industrially rich countries, it is not advisable to focus totally on development of agriculture and industrial sector to enlarge size of country’s external market…
Since long country is locked up in a situation of economic volatility, infrastructural deficit, financial disaster in public sector entities and growing poverty. Reformatory policies undertaken by different sectors of the economy from time to time failed to bring the desired results due to bad governance and corruption at all levels and above all state involvement in the economy. In the wake of this constrained situation, for an effective turnaround country’s economic managers need to follow the growth strategies of fast emerging Economies like China, which also basically being an agrarian economy started with reformatory policy for their agriculture sector.…
Despite onslaught of COVID pandemic from the beginning of 2020, a number of middle and high income developing countries were confident of the fact that due to sustained growth of their economies they will be able to achieve all the 17 Sustainable Developmental goals within specified period (by2030), but on the basis of findings of recent studies conducted at World Bank relating to last three years the healing process for the shock coming to World economy through pandemic and Ukraine war is not over yet. However some divergences have been noticed in growth rates of different regions thus accordingly global…
Despite onslaught of COVID pandemic from the beginning of 2020, a number of middle and high income developing countries were confident of the fact that due to sustained growth of their economies they will be able to achieve all the 17 Sustainable Developmental goals within specified period (by2030), but on the basis of findings of recent studies conducted at World Bank relating to last three years the healing process for the shock coming to World economy through pandemic and Ukraine war is not over yet. However some divergences have been noticed in growth rates of different regions thus accordingly global…
UN member states finding the MDGs agenda unaccomplished in 2015 adopted the 17 Sustainable Goals programme giving a timeline ending December 2030 with the hope that progress made through achieving all the 17 SDGs would ultimately result in eliminating extreme poverty from the planet, which so far has engulfed almost 8 billion people who are experiencing extreme poverty and need to have a liveable life devoid of hunger and misery. The most recent SDGs Review Moot held in New York observed that in the case of developing economies on average only 15% success could be recorded due to global setbacks…
As reflected from Asian Development Bank Outlook reports on Asia, ranging from the years 2012 to 2021, Asia despite becoming a dynamic force attracting the entire world economy in its folds since the start of last decade, its growth is likely to be threatened by a fast increase in inequality. An astounding fast growth achieved by Asian emerging economies during the last two decades, which no doubt has reduced absolute poverty, but at the same time has initiated an ever-widening gap between rich and poor masses, which in turn has not only rendered Millennium Developmental Goals (MDGs) unfulfilled for the…
Despite the fact that microfinancing emerged and flourished basically in South East Asia and African countries as an effective tool by microfinance bank for economic empowerment of disadvantaged segments of the population, poverty concentrates in this part of the globe where almost 4 billion people are living below the poverty line. The reason is that the investment needed in this particular financial sector falls far short of what is needed. According to data released by Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP) total global investment in the Microfinance sector has just reached $30 billion by the end of 2007, whereas…
Stagnant economic status of rural poor responsible for food insecurity Among the developing countries, Pakistan is bracketed with countries having a large rural impoverished population. According to a World Bank report, this group of countries on the globe is distinguished for having almost 90 percent of their rural population falling in the categories of either landless labour or those having uneconomic farm holdings, thus placing almost 80 percent of their rural population at the threshold of poverty. Pakistan ranks 8th globally with regard to farm output according to the list of countries GDP wise but unfortunately, according to the Asian…
Pakistan’s economy under severe stress in recent years caused by external factors beyond the country’s economic managers’ control and internal pandemic-related losses, the impact of natural disasters like floods causing devastation to all sectors of the economy and growing political turmoil since last three years has brought down the economic growth to the lowest ebb. Growing external debt and worsening fiscal and trade deficit impacting budgetary position has changed the external world outlook towards Pakistan. According to Nobel Laureate James Tobin price, financial and macroeconomic stability places a strict joint requirement on budgetary and monetary policy. Central banks must pursue…
According to the Global Wealth Report of 2015 released by Credit Suisse in October 2018, Pakistan has the 18th largest middle-class consumers population. The share of the middle class in the adult population of 111 million was 5.7 percent whereas in India it was only 3 percent. Positive growth of the middle-class population until recently was achieved despite growing macro-economic imbalances and terrorist activities along with misery invoked through the onslaught of Covid-19 and the countrywide disastrous flood experienced recently giving rise to food insecurity and extreme poverty. The country has recorded a significant increase in the urban middle class…
The failure of economically rich countries for hampering climate warming due to uncontrollable carbon emissions at their end has brought immense adverse impacts on the climatic environment of developing countries of South Asia in particular. Increasing temperatures this summer caused fast glaciers melting and harsh monsoons onslaught has caused heavy rainfalls in countries like Pakistan and India. Pakistan in particular apart from experiencing long drought spells is now engulfed in heavy monsoon rain spells from June to till mid of September this year. It has played havoc in the devastation of not only civic life but also the economy of…
The recent abrupt rise in inflation more pronounced in both in rich and developing economies has been found badly effecting disadvantaged segments of their population, thus failing all efforts to combat rising inequities being one of the most focused target among 17 goals of SDGs to be achieved by 2030. The situation demands vigorous efforts on the part of countries for setting up explicit inflation targets. Global Financial meltdown of 2008 which continued to persist until recently and thereafter ravages of COVID pandemic and threat of stagflation situation hovering round majority of emerging and developing economies resultant of Russian and…
Fiscal policies under new budget need to be useful for the poor Universally, economists and economic managers, while devising fiscal policies have been focusing on economic efficiency aspect, whereas in the face of growing inequalities the weightage should have been given to distributional aspect, upholding moral and social values ensuring welfare of disadvantaged segments of population. Policy makers need to be cognizant of moral perspective of public finance. According to Paolo Mauro, Deputy Director in IMF, community, authority, divinity, purity loyality and sanctity are important considerations of not only in many non-Western countries, but also among politically influential segments of the population…
Microfinancing has its origin based on universal dictum of economic and social justice, to be brought in all societies so as to arrest the widening gap between the rich and poor and thus eradicate poverty from the globe. Similarly Islamic laws based on Quranic teachings, focusing all financial transactions also uphold ethical values and social justice and make it incumbent on the state to promote equality and equal opportunities for all. All the modes of financing under Islamic banking wherever introduced to replace Riba/interest are based on following assumptions: a) That all transactions under Islamic modes of financing involve the…
Universally accepted norms of achieving a balanced and sustainable economic growth of a country are its GDP growth rate, level of private and government consumption, private and public sector investments, net exports and level of employment. These all components of macro-economic presently, are being guided under ‘rational expectational theory of neo-classical school of economics contrary to Keynes framework of economic analysis, which advocates rigidness in all economic behaviors relating to production, pricing, inflation and employment. Neo-classical model has emphasis on expectational behavior of all economic agents towards success of an economic activity, but this approach has lost grounds after recent…
Original agenda of Paris meeting of 2015 relating to seventeen highlighted Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030 had placed climate change or global warming concern at 13th level, whereas apprehensions relating to failure of arresting global warming at 1.50% level keeping in view climatic changes happenings during last 6 years have forced all countries to revise or speed up strategies to arrest global warming so as to keep strategies to achieve other 16 goals intact/undisturbed. It is obvious that changing climate, global warming, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation particularly in developing countries coupled with persisting COVID pandemic has…
The fast development of technology in all business fields, and the information technology (IT) in particular, has augmented the sophistication in customer needs, hence the survival of business as well as the life time coveted business leadership is under threat. Information technology has made Inroads in all processes and activities of an organisation. Intensive and extensive use of IT in all processes and functions of an organisation whether commercial or non commercial has necessitated change in communication channels, decision making functions and mechanism control etc. Therefore organisation structure has started getting flattened and taking horizontal shape. Middle management function which…
Corrupt practices with all dimensions like money laundering, terror financing, manipulation of funds allocated for development expenditures, hoarding of essential items of consumption, speculative trading in stock exchange securities and properties, tax evasion, smuggling, under and over invoicing continue to grow unabated and adding to undocumented size of the country’s economy. This particular environment accompanied by havoc played by COVID 19 has resulted in fuelling inflation despite sound monetary policy in place, and also has caused sizeable regression with regard to country’s revenues and above all depletion of Human Development Indicators (HDIs), linked to status of social sector development ultimately…
Globally, fast rising trend of both external and domestic debt, emerging in 2008 and onward due to economic recession has engulfed entire financial world in whirlpool of fiscal deficit both in developed and developing economies. No doubt some of the high income developing countries had taken radical measures to recapture their lost sustained economic growth rate and luckily came out of quandary. However onslaught of Covid-19 factor has drastically damaged their economies and put them in a negative growth rate situation. Problem has however aggravated in case of low income developing countries, Pakistan in particular, where slow penetrations of after…
According to ILO report of 2009-10, globally, number of women employed grew by 18.4% over the past decade and by the end of 2007 has crossed the figure of 1.2 billion, but at the same time number of unemployed women also increased from 70.2 million to 81.6 million almost 60% over the same period due to low female employment – to- population ratio. The report also reveals that more than half of all working women are deployed in informal sector or in vulnerable jobs entailing low value jobs, low salary and low product quality/standard if self employed. In South Asian…
COVID 19 pandemic has disrupted the entire global economy, which already with the start of the current century and particularly since financial crisis of 2008 had remained unsustainable thus adversely impacting both economically developed and under developed countries socially and environmentally. The lopsided growth of economies particularly in case of economically rich countries, has brought the world at a catastrophic environmental change. Before the onset of Covid-19 developing economies particularly emerging economies group could lift billions of people out of poverty, but these countries also could not arrest rising inequalities and social unrest. Pakistan in particular being a middle income…
The percentage of migrants in total world population hovers around three percent and even that mainly represents low income countries. Visibly their economies are directly benefited in the sense that home remittances form a sizable chunk of their GDPs, sometimes ranging from 6.5% to 13%. It is particularly South Asian countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal where funds inflow from their overseas population earnings proved safety nets against growing poverty. Drastic reduction in percentage (from 35% to 25%) of impoverished population of Pakistan from 2001 to 2019 owes some extent to growing remittances from overseas Pakistanis used at home…
It is not only the challenge of Cvoid-19 pandemic looming on the horizon of country’s economy, but also it is growing size of black economy, outcome of corrupt practices flourishing with dimensions like manipulation of funds allocated for development expenditures, hoarding of essential items of consumption, money laundering, clandestine terror financing, smuggling, under and over invoicing, speculative trading in stock exchange securities and properties and tax evasion etc. Resultantly apart from fuelling inflation it has made Herculean task for government to come out of grey list of Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Due to corrupt environment even very sound monetary…
Globalization has greatly impacted the mindset of the people as a whole. Besides that rapidly changing demographic profile of the countries accompanied by change in cultural values due to electronic media and greater access to latest information technology has given rise to high degree of competition sensitivity in almost all the manufacturing and service industries. Accordingly a significant change has occurred in organizational approach towards performance evaluation of their managers at all levels due to penetration of outside influence in form of new competitors and shrinking world markets necessitating speedy change in marketing techniques, introduction of new products/services to widen…
In compliance of constitutional requirement, that limitation of Riba will be state policy of Pakistan, It has been ambitious program of all succeeding governments since late seventies to Islamise all banking transaction to get rid of Riba from the economy as a whole. At earlier stage, efforts were made to eliminate interest by shifting to non-interest based modes of financing mostly relying on those which are trade related and involve deferred payments like Morahaba, Muajjala (mark up), leasing and hire purchase etc, and to some extent, real Islamic modes of financing were made use of, which are investment related like…
Globally, eradication of poverty has been a burning issue since early fifties when war ravaged economies particularly of European countries were to be rehabilitated. Thereafter, world encountered several natural and manmade disasters pushing almost 1.6 billion people in the clutches of poverty. In this regard various aid giving agencies formulated various plans/strategies like Marshall Plan, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and now new initiatives under Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and these being top down and bottom up plans to address the issue of growing poverty, particularly in developing countries along with tailor-made multipurpose aid packages for countries in dire need of…
The degree of income inequality is taken as one of the parameters to determine level of poverty in a country, but while probing into the causes of income inequalities one comes to know of factors totally out of control of individuals and nations as a whole responsible for reproducing inequality of opportunities overtime, thus multiplying the number of have-nots. Constraints imposed through various developed and under developed capital market conditions and government failure to remove structural constraints that impede capital accumulation by poor aggravate poverty situation at national level. On the other hand, at individual level, gender disparity, economic, social…
China had experienced fastest GDP growth rate around 11% until global financial crisis of 2007, which resulted in down turn of its economy’s growth trend and by beginning of 2016 it had gone down by 2 to 3% bringing adverse repercussions on its current account surplus also, which in the past had hovered around 10 to 12% of GDP, but by close of year 2016 it had gone down to 3% of GDP. Apart from global financial crisis, it was diminishing share of capital and labor as compare to use of latest technology in Total Factor Productivity (TFP). Marginal product…
Universally youth between the age group of 15 to 25 is taken as the most vulnerable segment of population while judging their reliability from any political, economic and social perspective, but despite this fact that this being most efficient and energetic component of a county’s workforce is always focused while devising all development strategies. Pakistan with 38 million adolescents and young adults ranks as fifth having largest population of people between age group of 15-25, but unfortunately due to fragile governance structure, stagnant or rather depleting economic growth rate along with growing political and social conflicts have negatively impacted efficiency…
Among the various reasons identified on global level for removing gender disparity with regard to education and female participation in labor force it is the total responsibility inflicted on women and girls for care giving at household level. This involves child care as well as special care giving for disabled and elderly members of the family. This gives them less time for education, involvement in paid work and other economic activities. They are even devoid of leisure and their constitutional right for political participation. This particular household environment common with developing countries of South East Asia including Pakistan limits engagement…
Among the developing countries having agrarian base, Pakistan is bracketed with countries having a large rural impoverished population. According to a World Bank Report this group of countries on the globe is distinguished for having almost 90% of their rural population falling in the categories of either landless labour or those having uneconomic farm holdings, thus placing almost 80% of their rural population at the threshold of poverty. According to Asian Development Bank report despite poverty reduction strategies in force in Pakistan the poverty in rural areas continue to increase. During the period from 1991 to 2001, percentage of poor…
With the advancement of information technology (IT)) terminology of mobile banking, which until beginning of first decade of current century was denoted as bank on wheel providing access to financial services to all disadvantaged segments of population living in unbanked areas is now getting transformed into a multifaceted terminology, which apart from facilitating all banking transactions through mobile/cellular phone, various wireless devices and Internet is integrating all segments of society, particularly in developing countries to an appropriate banking environment, facilitating their participation in economic development process. According to World Bank report of 2014 in this regard almost 69% of adults…
Recent upsurge of militancy and terrorism by some so-called Islamist groups in a number of Islamic countries including Pakistan have not only adversely impacted their development growth path in general, but in particular with their crude ideas and ideologies based on extremism regarding women status have been found degenerating Islamic values, which emphatically advocate equal opportunities for men and women in all walks of life. In areas of their hold an unacceptable Islamic way of life is being propagated, which bars women from acquiring education and health care facilities and their activities are being strictly confined to four walls of their houses. In this scenario it…
Ongoing campaigns for growing trees countrywide, strategically meant for combating adverse impact of climate change particularly increased global warming causing frequent drought conditions in major parts of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, are also aimed at promoting investment in forestry. No doubt investment in forestry is a long term investment with globally established rate of return of 10 to 12 percent, no doubt lesser than returns from other avenues for investments, but seems more viable in a volatile global economic environment because of negligible or much lesser risk involved in this business. Globally March 21st is observed as Forest Day.…
Despite significant improvement noticed in quite a number of developing and emerging economies for empowering women through strategies like Millennium Developmental Goals followed by Sustainable Development Goals for reducing gender disparity women still continue to be less privileged segment of society particularly in African and South Asian countries including Pakistan. According to findings of Global Gender Gap Report of 2011 relating to this part of the world largest gap has been noted in political and economic participation of women. In Pakistan due to deep penetration of patriarchal culture gender disparity is glaringly visible in all walks of life. Women in…
Country’s economy being at its lowest ebb needed to be reformed on immediate basis. Growing fiscal and trade deficit along with fast dwindling foreign exchange reserves have made it impossible for the incoming government to achieve almost all macro economic targets set in last budget unless steps are taken on war footings to revamp the economy. Government need to set up reform agenda for bringing in fiscal discipline, by broadening tax net, making public sector spending pro poor and growth-oriented, drastic cut in expenditure of all tiers of government and public sector organizations, adopting liberal investment policy for attracting both…
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) had focus on halving poverty and improving lives of the world’s poorest by 2015. This very objective did materialize in case of some emerging economies particularly of Asia where incidentally over the past two and half decade economic growth rate of the continent as a whole has been higher than what was achieved by other economies on the globe. This high growth rate enabled fast growing Asian economies to reduce absolute poverty (earning $1.25 per day) by 50 percent. However in some of the South Asian countries including Pakistan poverty status remains stagnant. In case of…
Globalization is the culminating point of classical economists’ (Adam Smith and Ricardo etc) theories emphasizing comparative advantage in cost of production due to availability of natural resources, capital, division of labor and most importantly location leading to specialization and expansion in production of certain goods and services by the countries and then need of exchanging goods and services among nations across the globe. However the concept of globalization started gaining grounds rapidly with the advent of current century, which has created an environment of expansion of trade round the world accompanied with fast movement of capital and new technology particularly…
Almost all developing economies including Pakistan have earnest quest for high growth rate for achieving all sustainable developmental goals (SDGs), which focus on improving quality of life on the globe as a whole, but unfortunately majority of the nations have ignored the very essence of growth strategy promising desired results. All initiatives meant for fast economic growth must not overlook quality aspect leading to social outcomes to happen. All policies in this regard apart from giving intrinsic nature of growth must have social dimension also. Economic growth must result in eradicating poverty by creating quality human capital leading to generating…
In a scenario of consistently increasing flow of migrants remittances despite slow down in economically rich countries who deploy major chunk of Pakistan’s workers, there is need to regulate monetary policy transmission, effecting banks lending and borrowing decisions, fiscal policy particularly government spending pattern and ultimately economic growth trend of the country. Pakistan ranks fifth among recipient countries of overseas workers’ remittances, which amounts to $19.9 billion received during last fiscal year and it is expected that inflow will further increase due to ambitious program of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to enhance level of financial inclusion through digitalization leading…
Despite all out efforts of developing countries to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and now sustaining what has been achieved so far through strategy spelled out by world communities assembled in New York in 2016, poverty continue to persist and income inequality is thriving unabatedly even in high income economies and emerging markets. Reduction in extreme poverty has set compulsions on all nations to concentrate on this issue and also ensure sustainability of progress achieved regarding remaining MDGs goals and for formulating strategies for improving quality of life in low and middle income countries. However developing countries of Southeast Asia,…
Demographic trends witnessed from midst of last century till now particularly in economically rich nations identify various generational groups emerged on the basis of socio-economic circumstances prevailing during different phases of said period. People born during the period immediately after World War II to mid sixties are labeled as Baby Boomers who enjoyed maximum economic subsidies particularly in area of housing, education and food and clothing being wealthiest and most physically active segment of population significantly promoted economic environments of “consumerism” and at this stage that is by 2017 they exist in age range of 55 to 70. Generation born…
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t is the general belief that fast advancement in technology is adversely impacting employment level both in developed and developing countries thus lowering or stagnating individuals incomes and worsening inequality of incomes status all over the globe, but at the same time more obvious facet of technological advancement is that growing digital economy all over the globe has created peculiar work place environment where traditional employer and employee relation based on process of production/economic activity in an organization through full time labor team is gradually changing into crowd of individual entrepreneurs being ‘on demand workers’ to accomplish an assignment or…
[dropcap]E[/dropcap]xperience with emerging economies in recent years showing high growth rate, particularly India, Nigeria and Brazil where it is being retained in general at a level not less than 4 percent in any case giving boost to standard of living of the people and reducing intensity of poverty significantly, but with an adverse outcome reflected in widening gap between rich and poor. It is because of the fact that inclusive growth factor was ignored by economic managers of these countries. Inclusive growth in IMF’s perspective implies to equal sharing of growth benefits, equal employment opportunities, improved access to education and…
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hough belated, but growing concern on the part of all tiers of government to eradicate corruption through wide ranged campaign launched and equally participated by all public and semi public sector entities is a plausible initiative. However in this regard it is essential that all areas where corruption emanates like lack of monitoring and supervision at the time of election of national and provincial assemblies and also of local bodies, functioning of all ministries where finance matters and most importantly inefficiency and lack of accountability on the part of institutions that govern economic and social interaction are focused for implementation…
[dropcap]L[/dropcap]ike other middle and low income developing countries, Pakistan is continuously faced with consistency of fiscal risks endangering its economic stability. As such public finance policies and strategies need to be managed keeping in view ways and means to generate needed revenues through taxes and other sources to cover expenses on public sector development programs and also to meet current state expenditures. In the face of increasing budget deficit, it has become a problematic issue how to manage existing public debt and extend borrowings for matching budgetary allocations for required security arrangements through various segments of defense related institutions to…
[dropcap]D[/dropcap]ilemma of taxation policy for developing countries including Pakistan is need to be settled at a point where system is able to raise required amount of revenue with least dependence on government borrowings and with no adverse effect on any sector of the economy of the country concerned. Further system must be based on all canons of taxation propounded by Adam Smith and subsequently added by comprehensive elaborations made by modern economists regarding justice, equity and ability to pay being important ingredients of an effective taxation policy. Experience with different countries having democratic set up indicates that principles of justice…